1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a filtration device comprising a filter housing that has a bottom housing portion and a top housing portion, and a filter module wherein at least one hollow fiber bundle made from hollow fibers is surrounded laterally by an external outer shell. Each end of the hollow fiber bundle is sealed hermetically to the outer shell by an adhesive layer provided transversely to the longitudinal direction.
2. Description of the Related Art
DE 10 2006 002 013 A1 discloses a filtration device that is formed as a hollow fiber capsule that may be operated in a “dead end” or static filtration mode. Here, the hollow fiber ends are closed at one end.
During operation of this capsule, a complete venting of the hollow fibers provided in the housing is not possible, as a result of which the theoretically available filtering surface cannot be utilized fully. Further, in the case of an undesired presence of air in the hollow fibers, there is a risk during a subsequent hot vapor sterilization that the hollow fibers get damaged by the thermal expansion of the air entrapped in the hollow fibers.
It is an object of the present invention to improve the filtration device known from DE 10 2006 002 013 A1 in such a way that a complete venting of the hollow fibers provided in the housing becomes possible and during sterilization of the filtration device with hot vapor (e.g. during “inline” evaporation), the risk of damage to the hollow fibers by the thermal expansion of the air entrapped in an undesired manner is prevented. The realization of these advantages according to the invention is of essential importance in particular for filtration devices that are used for static filtration.